First Digital Pill Approved by FDA Includes Medication Sensor

The first "digital pill" has been approved by the FDA and it includes a sensor that tracks a patient use of the medication Abilify.

The pill, created by Otsuka Pharmaceutical and Proteus Digital Health, is a version of Abilify, made by Otsuka, Bloomberg Technology reported. Abilify treats depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said the pill's sensor sends a message to a wearable patch, which triggers a mobile application so that patients can track the medication's use. Patients can also allow their caregivers and physicians to access the information.

Bloomberg said that while many health professionals embraced the technology, others expressed concern about a threat to patient privacy.

"Being able to track ingestion of medications prescribed for mental illness may be useful for some patients," said Dr. Mitchell Mathis, director of the FDA's Division of Psychiatry Products in its Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.

"The FDA supports the development and use of new technology in prescription drugs and is committed to working with companies to understand how technology might benefit patients and prescribers."

The New York Times reported that Harvard Medical School medicine instructor Ameet Sarpatwari warned that while the pill "has the potential to improve public health," there are worries that "if used improperly, it could foster more mistrust instead of trust."

Dr. Peter Kramer, a psychiatrist and the author of "Listening to Prozac," told the Times that the drug could be viewed as "medication with a tattletale."

The Times reported, though, that experts estimate that nonadherence or noncompliance to medication costs about $100 billion a year mostly because patients get sicker and need additional treatment.

"When patients don't adhere to lifestyle or medications that are prescribed for them, there are really substantive consequences that are bad for the patient and very costly," Dr. William Shrank, chief medical officer of the health plan division at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, told the Times.

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